Designing a Community-Engaged Course
Designing a community-engaged course can be trickier in terms of logistics, but the fundamentals of course design are the same: Identify your learning outcomes, develop assessments that measure the outcomes, and Select content that supports the outcomes.
This guide offers some recommendations for each step of the course design process that are specific to community-engaged learning.
Learning Outcomes
In addition to your content-based learning outcomes, you will also identify at least one learning outcome in two of the four NIU Community Engaged Learning Goals (knowledge, skills, disposition, participation). You can also review the Community Engaged Learning Goals rubric for more information on each of the learning outcomes.
Review both the content outcomes and the community-engaged learning outcomes with your community partner to ensure they can support students to achieve the goals associated with the community-engaged learning, and that they support the partner’s needs.
Community-Engaged Work
The scope of the community engagement will vary based on the learning and service objectives established for the course. Some projects may involve ongoing direct interaction with those served, while others engage students in creating products, generating resources, or producing knowledge vital to a community organization, neighborhood, or group.
Depending on the scope of the task, community engagement work will also vary in the amount of time students spend with the partner and the frequency of their contributions. There is no requirement for minimum hours of community engagement for the community-engaged course designation at NIU, but the engagement should be robust and meaningful to the learning outcomes of the course.
While single-visit projects can be a valuable learning tool, they may be insufficient to support the authentic relationship building that can lead to empathy and examining issues form multiple standpoints. When possible, engage students in regular contact with community partners over the course of a semester and encourage intentional analysis of those experiences.
Content and Activities
As you develop the content for your course, consider including the following components:
- Information about the community engagement expectations including the context and site, community work that will be performed, what will happen after project completion and where and how reflection and evaluation will take place.
- Information about broader issues relating to the project aids in understanding, including information about the population the group will be working with within the context of larger social issues such as power and inequality.
- Content and activities that support student learning of key concepts and skills necessary to meet course learning objectives and complete community engagement work.
- Activities and assessments that promote high levels of problem solving, critical thinking, analysis, application and theorization, and reflection.
Designing a Community-Engaged Syllabus
In a community-engaged course, your syllabus provides the framework for the course structure and how community engagement contributes to the learning outcomes. Consider including the following elements:
- Explain community-engagement and how it contributes to the course learning objectives.
- Set up the community issue or need clearly and define the scope of the service project.
- Describe the role of the community partner and how they will contribute to the course as co-facilitators of learning.
- Describe how the community engagement will be assessed.
- Describe the nature, context, and scope of the community engagement.
- Specify the roles and responsibilities of students in the community engagement (e.g., transportation, time requirements, community contacts).
- Specify the means by which students will be expected to demonstrate what they have learned through the community engagement (e.g., papers, presentations, portfolios).
- Clarify the connection between the service and the course content.
Taxonomy for Community-Engaged Courses
The following taxonomy provides a useful framework for considering key decisions in the design of a community-engaged course. While a course design may not reach Level 3 for all of the components in the taxonomy, it is generally better to embrace the higher levels of the taxonomy whenever possible.
The taxonomy was developed by Thomas Hahn, Julie Hatcher, Mary F. Price, and Morgan Studer of Indiana University Purdue University of Indianapolis.
| Course Attributes | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reciprocal partnerships and processes shape the community activities and course design. | The instructor contacts a community organization to host students and provides a brief overview of the course (e.g., learning outcomes, syllabus) and the purposes of the community activities. | The instructor meets with the community partner(s) to discuss the course (e.g., preparation/orientation of students, learning outcomes, syllabus), and to identify how the community activities can enrich student learning and benefit the organization. | The instructor collaborates with and learns from the community partner(s) as coeducators in various aspects of course planning and design (e.g., learning outcomes, readings, preparation/orientation of students, reflection, assessment) and together they identify how the community activities can enrich student learning and add to the capacity of the organization. |
| Community activities enhance academic content, course design, and assignments. | The instructor includes community activities as added components of the course but they are not integrated with academic content or assignments. The syllabus does not address the purposes of the community activities. | The instructor utilizes the community activities as a “text” to provide additional insight into student understanding of academic content and ability to complete assignments. The syllabus describes the relationship of the community activities to learning outcomes. | The instructor integrates the community activities and relevant social issue(s) as critical dimensions for student understanding of academic content and ability to complete assignments. The syllabus provides a strong rationale for the relationship of the community activities to learning outcomes. |
| Civic competencies (i.e., knowledge, skills, disposition, behavior) are well integrated into student learning. | The instructor focuses on discipline-based content with little attention/priority given to civic learning or development of civic competencies. | The instructor focuses on discipline-based content and connects to civic learning and civic competencies when relevant to the community activities. | The instructor focuses on the integration of discipline-based content with civic learning and civic competencies and emphasizes the relevance of the community activities to the public purposes of the discipline in society. |
| Diversity of interactions and dialogue with others across difference occurs regularly in the course. | The instructor, the course, and community activities offer students limited opportunities for interaction and dialogue with others across difference. | The instructor, the course, and community activities engage students in periodic interactions and dialogue with others across a range of experiences and diverse perspectives. | The instructor and community partner(s) engage students in frequent interactions and dialogue with peers and community members across a range of experiences and diverse perspectives. |
| Critical reflection is well integrated into student learning. | The instructor asks students, on a limited basis, to create reflective products about the community activities, usually only at the end of the semester. | The instructor structures reflection activities and products about the community activities that connect the experience to academic content, require moderate analysis, lead to new action, and provide ongoing feedback to the student throughout the semester. | The instructor builds student capacity to critically reflect and develop products that explore the relevance of the experience to academic content, use critical thinking to analyze social issues, recognize systems of power, lead to new action. The instructor provides ongoing feedback to the student throughout the semester. |
| Assessment is used for course improvement. | The instructor articulates student learning outcomes but no measurement tool is in place for assessing the service learning component of the course. | The instructor articulates student learning outcomes and uses a measurement tool to assess the service learning component of the course. | The instructor and community partner(s) articulate student learning outcomes, and use measurement tools to assess the service learning component of the course and influence on community outcomes. |
Portions of this guide were developed by the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching and Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. They have been adapted for NIU by the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning and are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.